New trends in next-generation location-based technology

What we’ve seen from location-based services is just the beginning. A wave of new location technologies are on the way. But what will they look like? ClickZ provides a forecast with five trends. Here’s just one:

Social recommendation engine: Expect growth in conversations around places. People do not just want to share that they’ve been somewhere, they also want to share what they think about it. Foursquare’s Tips feature makes it easy for people to leave behind tips about a location like what to eat, what not to eat, and what to do. Other apps will follow and extend this content from a supporting role to a key component of the experience.

Users will also start extending recommendations to other places outside of the current location. For Google, this means making robust updates to its suite of location apps. Google has already rolled out updates to make its Latitude and Places products more appealing to everyday consumers, such as Google Places’ HotPot, a location recommendation tool that is fueled by Netflix-like ratings of locations and a social recommendation system based on places friends have liked. Yelp has started using Facebook’s Open Graph API to make social recommendations based on reviews Facebook friends have posted.